Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

dimension on the behavior of a strategic commander will subsequently have a direct impacton the strategic outcome.This leads Boyd to the conclusion that in general terms the strategic aim is to:Penetrate moral-mental-physical being to dissolve his moral fiber, disorient his mentalimages, disrupt his operations, and overload his system, as well as subvert, shatter, seize orotherwise subdue those moral-mental-physical bastions, connections, or activities that hedepends upon, in order to destroy internal harmony, produce paralysis, and collapseadversary’s will to resist. 119This results in a synthesis of abstract formulations of prescriptions for actions and objectivesof operations at the tactical, the grand tactical and strategic level. It is in a sense a list ofthings “to do”. However, it is not a check list for commanders to follow, but a reconceptualizationof what one should be trying to achieve vis à vis the opponent’s level ofcohesion, his capability to observe and orient correctly, and his ability to respond in a timelyand relevant way. In other words, Boyd offers ideas for affecting the opponent’s capability toadapt, and he argues that it requires that any physical movement, as well as the hiding ofmovements, should relate directly to a cognitive effect one wants to achieve within theOODA process of the opponent 120 :Tactics‘OODA’ more inconspicuously, more quickly and with more irregularity as basis to keep orgain initiative as well as shape or shift main effort; to repeatedly and unexpectedly penetratevulnerabilities and weaknesses exposed by that effort or other effort(s) that tie up, divert, ordrain-away adversary attention (and strength) elsewhere.Grand TacticsOperate inside adversary’s OODA-loops, or get inside his mind-time-space, to create atangle of threatening and/or non-threatening events/efforts as well as repeatedly generatemismatches between those events/efforts adversary observes, or anticipates, and those hemust react to, to survive;TherebyEnmesh adversary in an amorphous, menacing, and unpredictable world of uncertainty,doubt, mistrust, confusion, disorder, fear, panic, chaos,… and/or fold adversary back insidehimself;119 Ibid, p.133.120 Ibid, p.134.220